When Facebook first announced its new Timeline layout, many people got riled up — they didn't like the change. And now that Timeline has been rolled out to most users, many months later? There still doesn't seem to have been a general change of heart. And scammers are loving the fact that they can take advantage of this attitude.
Inside Facebook reports that "a number of scammers" are preying on people desperate to get rid of Timeline and revert back to the old Facebook Profile layout. The evildoers are doing so by creating Facebook Pages filled with deceptive instructions which promise users the ability to go through such a rollback if only they complete a series of actions.
Actions include clicking various "Like" buttons, inviting friends to "like" a page, watching YouTube videos, downloading files, and so on. While some of these actions may not have terrible outcomes, many could lead to the installation and spread of malicious software.
Considering that the switch to Facebook's Timeline is permanent once you decide to try it, you wouldn't think that many users are falling for the scammers' tactics at all — but Inside Facebook's Brittany Darwell discovered otherwise:
We have found 16 Timeline-related scam pages, which have collectively gained more than 71,000 likes. The largest, with nearly 19,000 likes, has been around for at least two weeks. These pages are among the top search results when searching Facebook for “timeline.”
Yikes! So what can you do to keep yourself safe? Surrender to Timeline — it's apparently here to stay — and realize that hitting a "Like" button or watching a YouTube clip won't magically make you more powerful than Mark Zuckerberg and his team of designers.
Related stories:
- Facebook glitch reveals private photos — including Zuckerberg's
- Facebook: 6 degrees of separation? More like 4
- Turn (almost) any photo into a Facebook Chat emoticon
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